Last week I finally got a chance to see one of my favorite bands, Falls of Rauros, and they did not fucking disappoint. They captured live all the majesty and beauty they create on their albums and it was easily my favorite live performance of the year, by a fucking mile. At the show I picked up the recently reissued CD versions of their insanely amazing second album The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood, and their first album Hail Wind and Hewn Oak.

When it comes to falls of Rauros, for me, where it’s at is their second and third album Believe in No Coming Shore, two albums I hold in incredible high regard and am absolutely infatuated with, that their first album always gets neglected. I discovered Falls with the release of Light and went back to check out their first one but remember not being as impressed with it so I just listened to Light over and over again. Well now that I bought the CD at the show I thought this would be a great time to dig back into it and see what’s there.

Falls have perfected their sound and approach to atmospheric, folk infused black metal and on this album they find themselves just out of the gate (with only a handful of demos behind them) setting the stage for what’s to come. This one isn’t as refined or as focussed as the two follow up albums but there’s definitely a sense of experimentation, exploration in song writing, and the crafting of sounds and music that makes what to come so masterful. It’s like an underdrawing of a painting, necessary to get a masterpiece done, and that’s what this album is, the foundation for what Falls has become, which is one of the best black metal bands on the scene today, from any sub-genre. While the album isn’t perfect and I do like the others better, it’s still fucking awesome as Falls is an incredible band and plays this music like no other. You’d be doing yours ears a favor to hear this one.